Megopteran
"So the bug is from the same place as the artifact? And the artifact is from the future..." -Danny Quinn The Megopteran was created by Carim Nahaboo, aged 16, from Woodford Green, Essex. He won the competition held by ITV for designing a creature. Carim called his creature a "Megopteran", though the creature has not been named on-screen. Description This monster is a highly adapted predator from the future, which has evolved from carnivorous insects, such as the Tiger Beetle. It grows to around 2-4 metres long and as tall or taller as a grown man. Posessing six strong legs, a long arched neck, and medium sized wings (allowing flight over short distances) it is a well adapted generalist hunter who will readily attack any avaliable prey. They appear to communicate in a series of loud hollow clicking sounds. Lacking antennae, the creatures use their large compound eyes to detect prey. When it has found a suitable victim, it will use its large mantis-like forelegs to catch it, whilst the razor sharp mantables make short work of the meal. Its long legs make it a very fast runner and it apparently preferes to hunt at groundlevel (since they can only fly short distances), and relentlessly pursue prey no matter where it tries to hide. Although evolved from hive based insects they do not seem to live in the same large colonies and have yet to show any distinct castes although three distinct sizes have been seen they all exhibit similar characteristics. The youngest Megopteran are the smallest at only 50cm, layed as eggs inside the flesh of captured prey and rapidly develop emerging from the corpse as a small scale version of the adult. The man-sized versions are the most commonly encounted. The largest versions are twice this size and only one or two have been seen. This could have been the queen of a group of megopterans. It is currently unknown if these variations are the result of age, caste differences or sexual dimorphism. They appear to be one of the apex predators of the ecosystems of the future, the other of course being the Future Predator. Given the food requirements of such large predators, it is implied these creatures do come into conflict with each other. History Sometime after the Future Predators (were apparently created (Episode 3.10)) and wiped out Humanity. The thrived in ruined [[Future City|Human cities] and competed with the Future Predators. An anomaly opened up in a Race Circuit in the Present and was tended by the ARC. A Megopteran came through and attacked Danny Quinn, although it was soon killed by a passing car. When Abby's brother Jack Maitland arrived and was attacked by a Megopteran, he escaped to the Future. The team set off to rescue him, despite being hindered by both Megopteran and Future Predators, they were successful. (Episode 3.8) An anomaly opened to Christine Jonhson office and a Megopteran come through,You fight with it,but ends up stranded in the Future City Whilst Danny, Abby and Connor pursued Helen Cutter to the future in order to stop her destroying humanity. They spotted three Megopteran going through the anomaly to Christine Johnson's HQ, but were in no position to stop it. Becker and Sarah Page were able to deal with this threat. (Episode 3.10) Trivia *for Megopterans to reach such size as oxygen levels had to be much higher than present-day, however they have been shown to be able to live in modern times, suggesting that the Megoptorans had evolve some sort of advance respiratory system comparable to mammals or birds *The Megopteran are the third "bug" creatures, to appear in Primeval after the creatures introduced in Episode 1.2 and Episode 2.5 *This is the third creature to kill a Future Predator, excluding the animals within the Creature Prison belonging to Oliver Leek. *This is the second non-mammalian animal from the future that the team has encountered - excluding the Fungus Creature as it was not an animal - the first is the Future Shark from Episode 2.4. *This is the only flying arthropod that the team has encountered. *This is the only creature that is a match for the Future Predators in the future habitat in which both live alongside each other. It is unclear, though, whether the Megaopterans are a serious threat to the Future Predators. The population of both seem to be abundant, it is possible that they lived on different continents and collided due to the continental shift, and they competed with each other. **The Megopteran seem to be winning the battle against the Future predators as just after the team get back through the anomaly, only Megopteran emerge from the smoke at the end. This could mean they are a threat to the future predators. However three megaopteran's were seen being equally matched by the predators but these were probably the man sized versions or juveniles in which case its a 50/50 chance. The largest megaopteran (possibly female) seen at the end feasting on a dead predator would be more of a threat. *In Episode 3.8 it is stated that the Megopteran is a descendent of wasps and bees, although the website and several other sources state that it is a beetle. *The Larvae that Jack and Danny encounter in the bunker are possibly Megopteran larvae, but a smaller megopteran attacks Sarah in the present. This could be some error, unless the creature shrinks in size after transforming from the maggot or it is possibly an larvae of another futuristic arthopod species. **''Or it could be that the queen has maggots (because the creators conformed that it is a megaopteran maggot on the season 3 dvd extra 'the making of a creature') and the warriors lay eggs that hach immediately into smaller megapteran, almost like aphids. the maggots could grow into new leaders, and the babies would live their lives as workers untill they're full grown into warriors.'' *Since no insects as large as these have appeared in the past, the Megopteran, as with the Future Predators, may have been created by Humanity. *It was changed a great amount from its original concept art contest entry, removing a stinger, having larger wings, a smoother surface exoskeleton, legs facing different directions, red eyes, a tail, a longer neck, smaller body, larger anntenae (on a different spot), and the mouthparts have been altered (not to mention 2 spines behind its head). Gallery Image:futurebeetleconcept.jpg|Concept design for the Beetle. Image:Primeval megopteran.jpg|Picture from ITV website. Primeval 01.jpg Creatures megopteran 320x220.jpg Category:Future Creatures Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Series 3 Creatures Category:Creatures that cause deaths Category:Arthropods Category:Creatures Category:Invertebrates Category:Create Your Own Creature Competition creatures